I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processing both single-carrier and multicarrier signals, and particularly to sharing components of a processor for processing both Golay-coded signals and OFDM signals.
II. Description of the Related Art
Within millimeter-wave communications, several different types of networks, each with their own communication protocols are envisioned. For example, there are Local Area Networks (LANs), Personal Area Networks (PANs), Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs), sensor networks and others. Each network may have its own communication protocol.
In one aspect of the related art, a Physical Layer supporting single carrier and OFDM modulation may be used for millimeter wave (e.g., 60 GHz) communications. In this case, the bandwidth is approximately 2.0 GHz, with a chip rate of 0.5 ns. Wireless communication systems typically employ data multiplexing for allowing multiple users or devices to share access to the communication system. Some wireless communications systems are designed to support simultaneous data transmission among multiple devices and multiple groups of devices. A group or network of devices having data connection among each other is sometimes referred to as a piconet, which is defined as a logical group of two or more devices communicating with each other.
Different piconets may employ different transmission modes (e.g., single-carrier and OFDM modes). Furthermore, multiple transmission modes may be supported within a single piconet. Therefore, it is often advantageous for a transceiver to support multiple transmission modes.
A single-carrier transceiver in an IEEE802.15.3c network typically employs at least one Golay-code generator to provide Golay codes to all of the fields of a transmitted data frame and to perform matched-filtering of a received Golay-coded signal. Complementary codes, first introduced by Golay, are sets of finite sequences of equal length such that the number of pairs of identical elements with any given separation in one sequence is equal to the number of pairs of unlike elements having the same separation in the other sequences. S. Z. Budisin, “Efficient pulse compressor for Golay complementary sequences,” Electronic Letters, 27, no. 3, pp. 219-220, 31 Jan. 1991, which is hereby incorporated by reference, shows a transmitter for generating Golay complementary codes as well as a Golay matched filter.
An OFDM transceiver typically employs a Fourier transform, such as a fast Fourier transform (FFT) and an inverse FFT (IFFT), and may optionally employ a Golay-code processor for processing Golay-coded preamble and/or header fields of a data frame. Furthermore, a receiver configured to perform frequency-domain equalization of a single-carrier signal may comprise an FFT/IFFT processor.
Since there is a need for transceivers to perform both Fourier transform processing and Golay processing, it would be advantageous to provide for a single processor configured to process signals in a plurality of transmission modes. Furthermore, it would be advantageous if common hardware elements may be employed for performing Fourier processing and Golay processing.